VOORHEES — Seven games into the season, the Flyers have come close to a complete effort once and it was in a loss.

Even though there’s still another week in October, things are already looking grim. A 3-4 record won’t cut it. They’ve allowed 4.43 goals per game, second highest in the league. The expensive offseason acquisition, James van Riemsdyk, is on the shelf with an injury and won’t come back for another month.

Then there was Thursday night’s defeat in Columbus. They scored the game’s first goal, finally, but crumbled with the lead. One mistake led to several more and another tally in the loss column. Friday’s practice was a lot of 5-on-5 defensive work and battle drills.

“I think we deserved it,” defenseman Robert Hägg said.

“We can’t keep it together for 60 minutes. We start pretty good (Thursday) night and then just collapse in the second period. We’ve had it during the whole season so far. We haven’t kept a 60-minute good hockey game and I think that’s a big reason we’re ending up on the short end all the time. It’s not just one thing. It’s a bunch of different things. Sometimes it’s (that) defensemen screwed up with the puck. Sometimes it’s no forechecking. Sometimes it’s no backchecking. It’s small pieces all the time that seem to…I don’t know what to say, but it’s not just one thing.”

It’s several things.

For one, and most surprising of them all, top defenseman Ivan Provorov looks human. No one accounted for that at the onset of the season because he’s been the most consistent Flyer since he was properly baptized into the league two years ago. It took him only 20 games in his rookie season to be the team’s No. 1 defenseman and he’s been awfully shaky at times early this season, particularly with the puck on his stick.

“When we see mistakes in his game, it’s almost like we’re shocked to see those mistakes,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “There’s been some over the past couple of games. we need those to be cleaned up and to push his game to where it can be. He’s not far off.”

Then there’s the age-old criticism of the Flyers, their goaltending. A team save percentage of .858 is dead last in the NHL. Brian Elliott and Cal Pickard haven’t been the biggest reason the Flyers have lost games, but they sure could have provided a few more timely saves. That was the case against the Blue Jackets Thursday and Pickard was the first to call his performance “unacceptable.”

Where the Flyers are doing the biggest disservice, though, is by trying to do a teammate’s job in addition to their own. Too many passes, failed clears from their own zone and abandoning coverage to make an extra play have had them beat themselves.

“I think we need to address it as a group and we just need to stay within our system and the things we’re doing right,” defenseman Radko Gudas said. “We have great forecheckers. We play great when we’re simple and get the pucks deep and we got away from that and started passing across. That’s not our game. That’s not our strength. It really cost us the two points (Thursday) night and I think everybody knows what they did wrong.”

“What you see is at times guys trying to do a little bit too much,” Hakstol added. “When you try to do a little too much, when you try to extend a shift, you try to make one more play, most times that’s when some negative things come right back at you.”

Filling the net hasn’t been a big problem for the Flyers. They have averaged 3.43 goals per game, which ranked 11th in the league heading into Friday’s slate of games. Last season that would have been good enough for second in the league with only the Winnipeg Jets scoring at a higher clip at 3.54 goals per game.

What the Flyers need to do is tighten up defensively without losing much from their offensive side.

“The chances for and against the last three games — which you don’t get points for, so that’s not what you hang your hat on — our chances for and against have been right in the area where we want them,” Hakstol said. “In terms of the offensive production, right from the Vegas game (last Saturday) forward, even though we didn’t score in that game we had a ton of really good chances. Offensively we’re generating and doing things the right way. On the defensive side, it’s the timing of some of the Grade-A opportunities we’re giving up.”

According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Flyers have allowed 29 high-danger scoring chances over the last three games and had 39 of their own, yet they’ve been outscored 8-4 in the same area. That’s where some timely goaltending would come in handy. When it doesn’t, when the Flyers allow a goal that they probably shouldn’t, too many players go out on the next shift trying to score twice to make up for it.

“Especially when you’re down a couple goals you want to be the guy that does the right thing, does the little bit extra,” Gudas explained. “Sometimes if you do more, it’s gonna hurt you more. Sometimes taking a step back and making the simple play is the right decision. For us to grow as a team we need to do that and simplify our game.